iOS 7, thoroughly reviewed

When we reviewed iOS 6 a year ago, we called it a "spit-and-polish" release and we stand by that assessment today. Between the new Notification Center, iCloud, and iMessage, iOS 5felt like a big, substantial release in ways that its immediate successor did not. A lack of impressive new features (the useful-but-minor Do Not Disturb, the niche Passbook, the busted Maps) and a visual design that was just past its fifth birthday both contributed to a feeling of inertia in iOS 6. There was a sense it was time for a change.

More on iOS 7

Boy, did we get one. iOS 6 had barely been out for a month before Scott Forstall, the exec who led the iOS team for as long as there had been an iOS team, left (or was ejected from) the company. Craig Federighi and Jony Ive, the Apple senior vice presidents in charge of OS X and hardware design, respectively, stepped in to fill his shoes. Today we're looking at the result of that switch.

In one sense, iOS 7 changes nearly everything about iOS. A couple of wallpapers have made the jump, but otherwise you'd be hard-pressed to find anything in iOS 7 that looks quite like it did in iOS 6. In another sense, iOS 7 is the latest in a string of incremental updates. It adds a few new features and changes some existing ones, but this doesn't radically alter the way that you use the OS from day to day. Our in-depth review explores every nook and cranny of the new operating system to show you which additions actually improve iOS, and which ones are only skin deep.

Supported devices and feature fragmentation

Before we dig in, let’s talk about installation. For the purposes of this review, we’ll be omitting any iOS features unique to the iPhone 5C and 5S (don’t worry—they’ll each be getting their own reviews soon) and focusing entirely on the devices that are in your hands right now. The full list of devices that support iOS 7 reads as follows:

The iPhone 4, 4S, 5, 5C, and 5S

The iPad 2, third- and fourth-generation iPads, and the iPad mini

The fifth-generation iPod touch

Two devices that supported iOS 6 have been dropped by iOS 7: the iPhone 3GS and the fourth-generation iPod touch. Both were dropped for good reason. The iPhone 3GS was the last of the small-screened iOS devices to lack a Retina display, and both devices are stuck with 256MB of RAM where the others have at least 512MB.

The length of the iOS device support cycle remains about the same as it has been for the last couple of years. If you buy an iOS device when it’s brand new, you can (with some notable exceptions) expect three to four years of software support, even if your device won’t get every new feature promised by every new software update. While it isn’t the concern that it is for Android devices, iOS has a little fragmentation of its own. As the iOS family gets larger, that matrix of unsupported features gets more complicated. Apple provides a full breakdown that we’ll repost here with some light editing and additions:

Panorama shooting is available on iPhone 4S or later and iPod touch (5th generation). Square and video formats and swipe to capture are available on iPhone 4 or later, iPad (3rd generation or later), iPad mini, and iPod touch (5th generation).

Filters in-Camera are available on iPhone 4S or later and iPod touch (5th generation)—Apple lists that only the iPhone 5 and newer should be able to use this feature, but as of the GM build, our iPhone 4S supports it too. Filters in Photos are available on iPhone 4 or later, iPad (3rd generation or later), iPad mini, and iPod touch (5th generation).

AirDrop is available on iPhone 5 or later, iPad (4th generation), iPad mini, and iPod touch (5th generation) and it requires an iCloud account.

Siri is available on iPhone 4S or later, iPad with Retina display, iPad mini, and iPod touch (5th generation), and it requires Internet access.

Finally, the iPhone 4 and its older A4 chip do not support the following features: the 3D Flyover feature and turn-by-turn navigation in Maps; AirPlay mirroring; translucency effects throughout the OS; live wallpapers; and some visual effects including the parallax effect on the Home screen.

Ever since iOS 4.0 brought the iPhone 3G to its knees, performance on older hardware has been a concern among upgraders. We’ll talk generally about performance and battery life later on in the review, but I’ll be revisiting the iPhone 4 in particular in a separate article soon. Ars Associate Writer Casey Johnston will also be spending time with the software on an older iPad 2 and reporting back on her experiences later this week.

Installation and setup

The iOS 7 update can be installed either via iTunes or by the built-in software updater in iOS 6. You’ll need an Internet connection of some kind to download the update and to activate newly purchased or registered devices. iOS 7 will leave your device with just a tiny bit less usable space than it had under iOS 6—just how much less varies from device to device, though the iPads typically take a bigger hit than the iPhones do. If you’re already squeezed for space, iOS 7 will squeeze just a tiny bit harder.

Device

Space available (iOS 6)

Space available (iOS 7)

16GB iPhone 4 (AT&T)

13.3GB

13.2GB

32GB iPhone 4S (AT&T)

27.8GB

27.5GB

32GB iPhone 5 (VZW)

27.5GB

27.3GB

32GB iPod touch 5

27.8GB

27.3GB

16GB iPad mini (Wi-Fi)

13.4GB

13.1GB

32GB iPad 4 (Wi-Fi)

27.4GB

26.7GB

The setup screens you’ll see on an iPhone 5 are located in the image gallery below for your convenience (the iPad screens are identical, just larger), but if you’ve set up an iOS device before, the design will be the only thing new about this process. One notable change is that devices now ask you to create a four-digit passcode during setup. This is skippable, but we’re glad to see Apple encouraging its users to protect their devices even at this basic level. Apple’s Phil Schiller mentioned during the company’s September 10 keynote that about half of iOS users didn’t set up a passcode at all, and Apple would apparently like that to change, even on devices without a fancy fingerprint scanner.

If you choose to restore from iTunes, the device will prompt you to connect to the computer.

Choose to restore from iCloud, and you'll have to sign in.

Choose to set the device up as a new one, and you'll be given the option to sign in or create a new Apple ID.

The passcode prompt is new, and it's encouraging that Apple is trying to get people to use passcodes by default.

Bit weird to see a review of iOS that doesn't acknowledge that you still can't send an email with two different types of files attached as a problem.

Nor does it address the fact that the OS still constantly directs you to it's own maps app, which is still unusable dross in most parts of the world, as you can't change default apps. Apple Maps is so bad it drags down the entire OS.

Slow running animations are a crasser form-over-function faux-pas than skeumorphism in my view. And Windows Phone has them too.

The worst example though is in OSX, the animations to transition into full-screen and switch between full-screen apps. There are hacky ways to speed them up, and even then they are still too slow, but the default speed is ridiculous.

Must be torture for the engineering nerds to have some "humanities" person come in and force them to roll animations at suboptimal speeds.

Hate to be 'that guy', but specifically calling out an OS review as 'thorough', I might expect some words toward particularly interesting new API features that should lead to some nice new apps. As usual, there were hundreds (thousands?) added that don't exactly lend themselves to screenshots but are very much a part of the OS and incoming experience.

Slow running animations are a crasser form-over-function faux-pas than skeumorphism in my view. And Windows Phone has them too.

The worst example though is in OSX, the animations to transition into full-screen and switch between full-screen apps. There are hacky ways to speed them up, and even then they are still too slow, but the default speed is ridiculous.

Must be torture for the engineering nerds to have some "humanities" person come in and force them to roll animations at suboptimal speeds.

one i really hate is the quicktime movie to fullscreen. should be instant like it was in the past.animation isn't even good the first time around.

Bit weird to see a review of iOS that doesn't acknowledge that you still can't send an email with two different types of files attached as a problem.

Nor does it address the fact that the OS still constantly directs you to it's own maps app, which is still unusable dross in most parts of the world, as you can't change default apps. Apple Maps is so bad it drags down the entire OS.

Just had to check this out myself: I can get for example a V-Card for a contact and a separate picture from photos into the mail, so your claim of "still can't send an email with two different types of files attached" is simply wrong.

Maps really is hit and miss. I've seen huge progress here in Berlin (when the new Maps were introduced no 3D flyover, wrong streets and parts were black and white) but since it is the capital of Germany it was to be expected.

So far I really like the design. Have been running the Beta version for over a month now and the GM feels very polished. I just hope that third party apps pick up the new styling sooner rather then later. iOS7 runs well on my iPhone 4S. One thing I was hoping for is a switch in the control center (or Siri) to turn on/off 3G. I usually keep 3G off, since Edge is plenty fast enough for loading some mobile optimized webpages/chatting/mailing but occasionally I need the speed up, so an easy switch would have been preferable.

Also I'm really glad there are new system sounds. In fact every time I here the standard three tone signal now from messages around me I feel very annoyed.

Performance on my iphone 4 seems the same as V6. I haven't tried running Pandora/Waze in my car yet. That's usually the biggest CPU suck I notice. I plan on upgrading to 5s anyway, so not a big deal.

Like some cars, it looks way better in person than in photos. I don't have a colorful background and a lot of the colorful default icons are nested in folders, so it's not the pastel wonderland seen in screenshots.

The dual-keyboard thing is a little wonky though. I guess there's a new keyboard API and the old one is deprecated? I'd like that explained a little more.

Nor does it address the fact that the OS still constantly directs you to it's own maps app, which is still unusable dross in most parts of the world, as you can't change default apps. Apple Maps is so bad it drags down the entire OS.

Hate to be 'that guy', but specifically calling out an OS review as 'thorough', I might expect some words toward particularly interesting new API features that should lead to some nice new apps. As usual, there were hundreds (thousands?) added that don't exactly lend themselves to screenshots but are very much a part of the OS and incoming experience.

I'll be hitting some of the API stuff in another piece later on. I wanted to keep this one consumer-focused and obviously it was running a little long. :-)

Apple’s own promo page for iOS 7 shows how the company feels about this sort of thing in the post-Forstall era: “The [iOS 7] interface is purposely unobtrusive,” it reads. “Conspicuous ornamentation has been stripped away. Unnecessary bars and buttons have been removed. And in taking away design elements that don’t add value, suddenly there’s greater focus on what matters most: your content.”

Sounds like a word for word copy of Microsoft's 'Content First' design principles of the Windows 8 Metro app user interfaces from the Build 2012 presentations. Most of the UI controls look like they have been ripped straight from Windows Phone 8.

But since this Apple we can expect everyone to gasp in awe and marvel at it's ingenuity.

I know it's a matter of personal taste, but there are loads of things I just don't really like in iOS 7. There's the fruit salad look and colored pieces of text everywhere (which seem needed to make up for the total lack of shapes and actual buttons), there's the transparency that just looks hideous depending on your background pictures, there's all the diluted fluffiness in the notification center with bland paragraphs of half-witty text instead of just a concise list of events, dates and times (I REALLY prefer seeing no event listed instead of having to read "your afternoon seems to be clear"), spreading all this now over three tabs instead one list...

And in spotlight the Google and Wikipedia search options are gone.

Apart from the control center there's nothing I want to have (and this I had since years with a jailbreak mod). Even the new multitasking switcher seems just slower than before and I can recognize apps to switch to much easier by their icons (which I tapped on to launch the app in the first place anyway) than by a screenshot of the content they happen to show.

This is the first time I won't update. I will run my iPhone 4 on 6.x until I get a new phone later on and it looks very much as if this won't be an iPhone. I'm actually sad about this but there's really nothing that would make me want to have iOS 7.

And there's STILL no document manager of any sort and no way to change default apps. You still have to hand around copies of files between apps and if you prefer Chrome over Safari you still end up in Safari when opening a website from within an app.

The only hiccup is that it only works with iDevices that support dual-band 802.11n, which cuts out the iPhone 4 and 4S and the iPad 2.

I believe this is incorrect. AirDrop requires ad-hoc peer-to-peer wi-fi support (Wi-Fi Direct?) and as such, the 3rd gen iPad is also excluded from what I've read on both Apple's site and your list of features by device near the top of the article.

Apple’s own promo page for iOS 7 shows how the company feels about this sort of thing in the post-Forstall era: “The [iOS 7] interface is purposely unobtrusive,” it reads. “Conspicuous ornamentation has been stripped away. Unnecessary bars and buttons have been removed. And in taking away design elements that don’t add value, suddenly there’s greater focus on what matters most: your content.”

Sounds like a word for word copy of Microsoft's 'Content First' design principles of the Windows 8 Metro app user interfaces from the Build 2012 presentations. Most of the UI controls look like they have been ripped straight from Windows Phone 8.

But since this Apple we can expect everyone to gasp in awe and marvel at it's ingenuity.

In fairness, Apple isn't trying to shoehorn iOS 7 onto their Macs, expecting the touch interface to work equally well with fingers as with a mouse. Most criticism of Metro seems to be that it sucks on a desktop/laptop, not that it is bad per se.

The only hiccup is that it only works with iDevices that support dual-band 802.11n, which cuts out the iPhone 4 and 4S and the iPad 2.

I believe this is incorrect. AirDrop requires ad-hoc peer-to-peer wi-fi support (Wi-Fi Direct?) and as such, the 3rd gen iPad is also excluded from what I've read on both Apple's site and your list of features by device near the top of the article.

Slow running animations are a crasser form-over-function faux-pas than skeumorphism in my view. And Windows Phone has them too.

The worst example though is in OSX, the animations to transition into full-screen and switch between full-screen apps. There are hacky ways to speed them up, and even then they are still too slow, but the default speed is ridiculous.

Must be torture for the engineering nerds to have some "humanities" person come in and force them to roll animations at suboptimal speeds.

I don't think Apple relied heavily on human-user-interface designers for this one. If those folks got their say, then a lot of changed wouldn't have occurred, b/c they break usability standards.

Instead, I think Apple let their liberal arts team go ape-shit with everything to try to make it "cool and chic and hip" or whatever.

At least usability experts (which have degrees that are a cross between psychology and comp sci) can give good, logical, scientifically-researched reasons why programmers need to change something. The liberal arts majors will just tell programmers to change it "b/c it looks cooler this way!" (which is just bullshit opinion).

Apple needs to get their liberal arts dept back on it's leash, and stop letting it dictate the direction of ... everything. Apples' a tech company, not an art company. I would rather see an ugly interface that is very usable than a nice looking interface that's a PITA.

Apple has always been inspired by art, their designs are usually considered artistic and elegant compared to the competition.

Contrary to what you're saying, sometimes you just gotta break things in order to improve them. That's been another philosophy at Apple.

Great write-up! You have a gift in doing this stuff, and I enjoy reading what you write. This is very informative, and is the perfect piece to help me in my decision to upgrade or not.What frame rate do you shoot your videos? They are live-looking, and show the animations in real-life. Thanks for this! Great job!

I was really hoping the animations would be sped up. Their low speed was a constant aggravation during the beta period. They placated people a bit when they mitigated the annoyance of the initial unlock animation by allowing you to tap icons before the animation had ended. It was downright painful waiting for this extremely lengthy animation to end before you could tap the icon you wanted to launch.

Unfortunately there are still a lot of areas where it hasn't been fixed. The most annoying for me is in control center. On android I ran CM and tweaked the unlock slider to let me go directly into calculator and toggle the flashlight (depending on which way I swiped). It was awesome to see Apple add exactly those to shortcuts to control center. Unfortunately, the idea of quickly accessing key functions is hampered by the fact that the icons are unresponsive until control center has entirely completed its animation, including the slight bounceback effect at the top. To put into perspective how slow it is, I sometimes tap on the flashlight or calculator 3 times before it registers my tap - the previous taps ignored as the animation was still ongoing. The share menu is another annoying example; when you swipe to select your sharing method you need to wait for the animation to fully complete (including bounceback) before you can tap on whatever you want to share with.

I wouldn't mind the animations as much if the UI elements weren't completely locked out during those animations.

Andrew Cunningham / Andrew has a B.A. in Classics from Kenyon College and has over five years of experience in IT. His work has appeared on Charge Shot!!! and AnandTech, and he records a weekly book podcast called Overdue.